Commercial tax district urged

Andrew McKeever

GNAT-TV News Project

MANCHESTER — A newly formed business committee is hoping to persuade voters and town officials that creating a special commercial property tax assessment district is the best available approach at the moment to gather the needed funds and organizational structure to promote the town to visitors and leverage events to boost their economic impact for local businesses and residents.

The Destination Marketing Organization, as the committee described itself Wednesday, Nov. 16, during a forum at Town Hall, wants to fill the void left by the demise of the Manchester and the Mountains Regional Chamber of Commerce when it comes to attracting visitors, possible new businesses, and other events that would expand business activity in town.

The overarching vision is to create an entity that focuses on the economic vitality of Manchester, said Chris Morrow, the owner of the Northshire Bookstore, and one of the leaders of the initiative.

“We feel like there’s a need … to coordinate the tourism and marketing needs of the area, and that this is really an investment in our future — something to look at seriously and make happen,” he said Wednesday to the roughly 30 people attending the forum at Town Hall.

The marketing organization is proposing creating a special commercial assessment district across Manchester, into which owners of commercial property would pay a tax of 10 cents per $100 of assessed property value. The group estimates that would roughly yield about $300,000 in revenue, enough to fund some long distance marketing promotion, a robust social media and website presence,  as well as eventually hiring someone to direct the operation. A seven member board of directors would oversee it, Morrow said.

Because it would be derived from public funds, the finances would be fully transparent and the organization would be accountable to the community, he said.

Under the terms of the district, all commercial property owners would be obligated to pay into the fund, which would be part of the town’s finances, but separate from the town’s general fund.

During Tuesday’s select board meeting, members of the committee previewed their presentation to the select board, outlining the arguments in favor of it. After an extended discussion lasting nearly two hours, the select board unanimously voted to give a tentative green light to the group to encourage them to continue with fine tuning the concept, without weighing in on whether they were ultimately going to be in favor of it or not.

Such a district would require a local vote, presumably during March Town Meeting. It would also require a vote of the state Legislature as well. If favorable votes in both cases could be obtained, the earliest such an assessment district could go into effect would be July 1, 2017.

Not all the business owners present at the forum were behind the idea of seeing an additional tax imposed on commercial property. The tax would be paid only by the owners, which in some cases are the actual businesses located in the commercial buildings. Others rent their space, which could mean they would eventually pay into the fund indirectly, through higher rents.

Andrew Weil, the owner of Manchester Hot Glass, located on Elm Street, had concerns. He had eventually withdrawn his membership in the former Manchester and the Mountains Regional Chamber of Commerce because he didn’t feel he was getting the full value of his membership dues from it, and wondered if that could happen again with the new proposed district, especially for businesses like his, which were located “off the beaten track,” he said.

“How do I know if I’m giving to this thing and getting something out of it more than the marketing I’m already doing for myself?” he asked.

His concerns were valid, and had been a subject of lengthy conversation among the committee members, Morrow said in reply.

“The idea is we’re all working together to get more visitors,” Morrow said. “We’re trying to create a structure that’s better than it was before and more transparent.”

Amy Chamberlain, the owner of The Perfect Wife restaurant, and one of the committee members who had been helping craft the proposal for a common assessment district, said that the amount of money being sought by the tax district under the funding formula was about the same as what she was paying the former chamber of commerce in dues.

“This seems like a better way to spend my money, where everyone is equally represented,” she said. “I think the most important thing is it will drive more business into town. I feel the trickle down is very obvious an important.”